Discussing Article One of “A Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation”

Published on Friday, 01 June 2012 18:08

49 Comments

The posting of ”A Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of the Plan of Salvation,” authored by Eric Hankins and others, has predictably drawn strong interest. It has been referenced in a recent Baptist Press article, multiple blog posts, and many dozens of posts in Facebook and other social media. SBC Today had over 10,000 visits the last couple of days, the comments thread on this statement are now over 500 comments, and over 220 signees (including some key leaders from every level of Southern Baptist life). Because it has drawn such a high readership, we will leave it up for several more days.

The discussion comments thread has offered a good opportunity for discussing this document, but with over 500 comments, it has become so big that it is unwieldy and difficult to follow. Therefore, we will archive the current posts (you can still read them here), and we will try to provide a little more structure for the continuing discussion. We will focus the discussion on each article of the statement, one by one, allowing comments on each article of the statement in order day by day. So, we will have discussion of Article 1 today and Saturday, Article 2 Sunday, Article 3 Monday, etc. You’ll be able to continue discussing these articles individually, but the main discussion will focus on a new article of the statement each day.

If you would like to discuss the document as a whole, you can continue making comments in the current discussion thread here. Otherwise, please confine your comments to the article being discussed that day, with its pair of affirmations and denials.

Just a reminder about the format of the statement for both advocates and critics of the statement: keep in mind that each of the affirmations and denials in the articles complement each other. This statement mirrors in many ways the format and subject matter of the Together for the Gospel statement signed and/or affirmed by some Southern Baptist leaders who embrace Reformed views, and that of the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy affirmed by most conservative evangelicals. In this format, then, it would be inappropriate to either affirm or critique a point in an affirmation if it is denied in the denial paired with that affirmation. The affirmation and denial stand together in this format, so it would be unhelpful in the discussion to divide them.

Whichever side you find yourself on these issues, thank you for your comments on this statement. It is better to address issues that we face than to pretend that they don’t exist. Your contribution to the discussion helps us to understand your position more clearly. Hopefully, this discussion will aid us in correcting mistaken perceptions about each other, and move us toward finding more constructive paths of working more cooperatively into the future.

-- The Editors of SBC Today

Click this link to see the full statementof “A Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation”

Click this link to see the list of signers of “A Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation”

Email sbctoday@gmail.com to join the movement and sign "A Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God's Plan of Salvation" as follows:

Discussion of Article One of “A Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation"

Note: Today’s comments should focus on the affirmation and denial in Article 1. If you would like to comment on the statement as a whole, you may do so here. Or, if you would like to address another specific article, we’ll be focusing on each of the ten articles day by day in the next ten days, and you can make your comments at that time. Again, please limit your comments here to Article 1.

Article One: The Gospel

We affirm that the Gospel is the good news that God has made a way of salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ for any person. This is in keeping with God’s desire for every person to be saved.

We deny that only a select few are capable of responding to the Gospel while the rest are predestined to an eternity in hell.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 1st, 2012 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Salvation.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.